


Puns on tour

by Joels_revolver



Category: The Last of Us (Video Games)
Genre: Bad Puns, Father-Daughter Relationship, Fluff, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-11
Updated: 2020-08-11
Packaged: 2021-03-06 02:28:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,100
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25842100
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Joels_revolver/pseuds/Joels_revolver
Summary: Ellie and Joel are out riding. Ellie has brought her pun book to pass the time, Joel tries his best to be annoyed. And fails.
Relationships: Ellie & Joel (The Last of Us)
Comments: 5
Kudos: 162





	Puns on tour

Joel has missed this. Just doing things for fun and not because your life depends on them. Riding through the woods, he has discovered, is a lot more enjoyable when he’s not chasing after a certain little girl, relaxing even. This is the perfect way to unwind after a long day on watch duty, surrounded by silence only interrupted by the sound of hooves treading over the soft ground and the wind whistling through the trees.

For the first time in a long while Joel can just enjoy the silen-

“Hey, Joel!”

Well, so much for that.

Ellie turns around in her saddle, sitting backwards and facing Joel with a mischievous smile on her face.

“One of these days, kiddo, you’re going to fall off and break something, doing that.”

Ellie ignores this, as usual. 

“How do you make holy water?” she asks with a glint in her eyes that has Joel suspicious immediately. 

“What?”

“You boil the hell out of it.”

_God help him._

“Please tell me you don’t have those memorized.”

“Nope, but I did bring this.” Ellie triumphantly holds one of her No pun intended books. “I’m on a seafood diet,” she continues, “every time I see food, I eat it.” 

Joel resists the urge to groan. “Ever heard the term ‘silence is golden’?”

“You, Joel, are a boring old man. Here, listen to this. ‘I have a split personality,’ said Tom being frank.’” Ellie almost falls off her saddle with laughter. “Oh man, I love that one.”

Joel has to admit that even he had to smile about it. Come to think of it, he smiles rather a lot these days. Still though… there was a time and place for that stuff.

“How about you keep your eyes on the front?”

“Pff, your eyes are on the front, and Shimmer is not stupid. Honestly, someone should have their eyes on the back.”

It is kinda hard to argue with that logic.

“Where was I?” Ellie has her nose buried in the book again. “‘Last night I dreamed I was swimming in an ocean of orange soda. But it was just a Fanta sea.”

No reaction.

Over the rim of the book Joel sees Ellie’s eyes narrow as they read over the joke again. He smiles. ”You don’t get that one, do you?”

“Ah, no.”

“Alright, I got on for you.” Joel clears his throat. “Did you hear about the restaurant on the moon?”

Ellie lowers the book. A smile slowly spreads over her face with dawning realisation. “You didn’t…”

Joel adds a dramatic pause for good measure. “Great food, no atmosphere.” 

“Oh my God, you _do_ have them memorized!”

“Some of them,” he says, feeling pretty pleased with himself, “riding with you one has to be prepared.”

Ellie claps the book shut. “Alright, I take back what I said about you being old and boring. Well, the boring part anyway. What else have you got?”

“Ah, let’s see...” Joel goes through his mental repertoire of puns. “Alright, here’s a good one: ‘I built an electric fence around my garden. My neighbor is dead against it.’”

Ellie laughs and the sound fills Joel’s chest with warmth.

Scratch what he said about silence, this is way better.

Being the reason for Ellie’s laughter makes him feel a long forgotten happiness he didn’t know he had still in him. If he spends the rest of his life cracking bad jokes that bring a smile to Ellie’s face, he will consider it a life well spent. 

Ellie catches her breath. “Okay, let me do the next one,” she says, leafing through her book again, “here: What did the janitor say when he jumped out of the closet?”

“Let me guess… Supplies.”

“Yes! Man, that’s awesome.” 

“Hm,” Joel shrugs, “I can think of a better one.”

Ellie lifts a challenging eyebrow. “Alright then, mister comedian. Let’s hear it.”

“What do you call a man with no arms and no legs stuffed in your mailbox?”

Joel waits for an answer from Ellie. She holds out for two whole seconds, before giving up.

“I don’t know,” she says, “what do you call him?”

“Bill.”

“Oh man, Bill! I wonder what happened to the guy…”

“Well… knowing Bill, I reckon he’s either still holed up in that town all on his own or died defending it.” 

Ellie scowls at him “Aren’t you a ray of sunshine…” 

“Alright, I’m sure he found himself a partner and is living his happily ever after.”

“That’s not fucking likely, though, is it?”

“No, probably not.”

Ellie looks to the side for a moment, a thoughtful look on her face. “Maybe we should visit him.”

“Sure, let’s stay over for a weekend. It’ll only take us four months to get there.”

Ellie fixes him with a dark look. “Not sure I like the sarcastic side of you. I’m putting this away,” she says, waving her pun book.

“Did you finally run out of jokes?”

“Nope, I’m just saving them for another day.”

Joel finds himself smiling in anticipation of when that day comes.

They’re nearing Jackson now. The forest thins out and Ellie turns around in her saddle to face the view of the setting september sun painting everything in a golden light.

“Wow,” she breathes.

Joel gives his stallion a light kick to fall into step with Ellie. “Not a bad view, huh?”

Ellie glances at him, smiling in awe. “Not bad at all.”

Joel’s eyes stay on her, as her gaze wanders to the sunset again. He’s pretty sure she’s happy. The smile on her face, the childlike wonder in her eyes… Joel will try his hardest to make sure she never loses that side of herself.

“What do you think,” he says, “movie night?”

Ellie throws him a grin. “Deal,” she says, “but we’re not watching _Die Hard_ again.”

“Fine, but it’s not gonna be _Jurassic Park_ either.”

“We’ve only watched that four times,” Ellie insists.

“ _Five_ times, and the only reason that number ain’t a six, is because you couldn’t find the DVD last time.”

“Because _you’d_ hidden it behind your coffee beans!”

“I gave it back to you.”

“Yeah. _After_ we watched _Die Hard._ ”

Joel chuckles at the memory. Looking at Ellie and seeing the carefreeness on her face, Joel feels a deep sense of peace settle over him. He thinks back on the pain of the last twenty years, then thinks back on the joy of the last few hours and decides, _Yes. Today was a good birthday._

He just hopes they’ll have agreed on a movie by the time they get home.


End file.
